Sec. 1] CAPITAL ACCOUNTS 67 
mon unit, capital-value. Similarly, a quantum of property 
rights existing at any instant is called capital-property, 
and its value, capital-value. As a general term to include 
both capital-instruments and capital-property, we may 
employ capital-goods, a term first suggested by Professor 
Clark. 
We have, then, a definite antithesis between capital- 
goods and capital-value, capital-goods being measured in 
various units appropriate to the various goods, as, for in- 
stance, in bushels of wheat, gallons of oil, acres of land, 
shares of stock, and capital-value being measured in a 
single uniform manner, as in dollars or other convenient 
units of value. The simple term “capital” is only em- 
ployed as an abbreviation of either of the compound terms 
“capital-goods ” and ““capital-value.” The business man 
ordinarily uses the term “capital” in the sense of capital- 
value, and hereafter, unless it is otherwise specified, the 
term “capital” will be understood in this sense. In 
adopting this nomenclature we find ourselves in harmony 
with Professors Clark, Fetter, Tuttle, and others referred to 
in the preceding chapter. 
We are now ready to consider the “capital accounts” 
employed in business. It is strange that any treatment 
of these accounts is generally omitted from economic 
text-books. There seems to be no systematic study of capi- 
tal accounts in any work on political economy. 
© A capital account is a statement of the amount and 
value of the property of a specific owner at any instant of 
time. It consists of two columns, — the assets and the 
liabilities. The liabilities of an owner are the debts and 
other obligations owing to others; that is, they are the 
property-rights of others for which such owner is respon- 
sible. The assets ov resources of the owner are all his prop- 
erty-rights, irrespective of his liabilities. = The assets 
include both the property which makes good the liabilities, 
and the property, if any, in excess of the liabilities. They